Bowling

We took Theo bowling this afternoon. He had a pretty good time!

Theo Photos from November 2011

I finally slowed down on taking photos in November of last year. Or to be more precise, Theo sped up. Dramatically. He finally took the plunge and let go of our finger and ran around the house and he's never looked back. I spent the first couple of days with an overwhelming desire to put him in a giant marshmallow suit, and then adjusted. A side effect is that it's much harder to capture him in photos, and even rarer to get a quality shot - quality being loosely defined as not blurry and no major body parts cut out of the picture. In any case, here is the collection from November 2011.

Tiger Mountain Hike

This past weekend we took Theo for a short hike around Tiger Mountain, about 20 minutes from home. We walked around a lake with Theo in the hiking backpack, then once we got back to the car we set him free and let him pick his own path. He of course set out to get to the summit! After a third of a mile we finally convinced him to turn around. He really got going, but we had to stop each time we passed anyone, and try and pet every dog. Ultimately Theo hiked for 2/3s mile all by himself, which you can see a portion of in the video below. A full track (well, I forgot to start it at the beginning) of our hike follows.

Tiger Mountain Hike

Theo Photos from October 2011

This stack of pictures contains the ones from his grandparents' visit, his first birthday, the pumpkin farm, and even a few from Halloween.

The Hammering

Thank god we replaced the glass in the coffee table with plexiglass.

Theo Enjoying Strawberries

Theo ate strawberries as part of dinner tonight and wanted to drink the juice afterwards.

Theo Photos from September 2011

Like I said, I'm behind posting photos but catching up slowly. Here's the set from September of last year, including a few pictures from our family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee that month.

More January Photos

I am catching up on posting months of backlogged photos. Here is a batch from last month, including a few additional pictures from our trip to Georgia.

Theo Brushing His Toes

During last night's bath Theo took his toothbrush and scrubbed his toes. He stopped before we could grab the camera, but as you can see below, he obliges a request:

Theo at the Playground

We've had an absolutely stellar past few (five!) days here in Seattle, with temperatures reaching the 60s. So of course on Tuesday I had to take Theo to the playground for a visit while Sarah was off visiting the dentist. Theo had a blast playing with another kid's ball which he found laying around, until eventually the other kid wanted to play with it again. In this video you'll see Theo giving kisses to the rocks, then when the other kid takes the ball, Theo pitifully signs "ball" over and over. (This doesn't have a particularly happy ending!)

Atlanta Photos

As promised earlier, you can find the photos from the Atlanta Christmas 2011 here.

Theo at Fifteen Months

Theo had his fifteen month check up today. Technically he's fifteen and half months now, but the older the child, the less they worry about seeing you right around the exact date. And we were traveling for his fifteen month birthday earlier in the month.

Theo weighed in at 24 pounds and 5 ounces, putting him in the 69th WHO percentile for weight. He's 33 inches tall, which puts him in the ninety-some-odd percentile no matter who you ask: 91 for CDC, and 94 for WHO statistics. His head circumference was 18.70 inches, or the 67th WHO percentile, although I'm not sure it was a perfect measurement. It's right on target with where he's always been head-wise, but he started screaming as soon as the nurse came in the room and closed the door. He was not thrilled about any of these measurements and repeatedly signed all done. He clearly remembers the blood draws for iron checks in October, November, and December, all done by the same nurse. He got two vaccines today, and a last iron check but that was after the doctor came to visit. He screamed again once the nurse came back, but that time she had needles in her hand and actually poked him.

I've been remiss in updating Theo's developments on the blog. He's hard to keep up with these days. He is definitely running everywhere. As soon as he let go of our fingers, he was running circles around the house. He still is. He loves to run laps around just about anything. Particular routes he favors include through his room, into the hall, and back around the fish tank, as well as around anyone sitting on the floor. It gets even better if he can chase the dog while he's at it.

Yesterday Theo started riding his tricycle. He can't reach the floor or the pedals from the seat yet, but he enjoys being pushed around, in laps of course. The dog is by far the best toy. Another favorite game is throwing things, like ducks in the bathroom, towards Daddy who tries to defend. It's a more even match of skills than you might imagine. Theo thinks it's hilarious and he has quite the wind up. Since he can chuck things with either hand, he will get tricky. You can see the wheels turning while he thinks about it. We played this game with the newly acquired rubber drill toy in the doctor's office today while we waited. Another recent favorite is to play in his crib - but only with an audience. He will ask to get back in his crib, chuck everything out, ask for more to get it back, and repeat the whole process with a lot of snuggling up to things in between evictions. Super fun to watch and it makes him giggle and laugh almost as much as the dog.

The little wooden pop up people are still one of his favorite toys, particularly to run around with in his mouth. He still loves his "music box", the Baby Einstein classical music player he got for the 2010 holidays. It does not get as much attention though. The biggest hits right now are things he knows he isn't supposed to have: phones and electronic gadgets in particular. He also loves bowls and spoons and cups and pretty much anything with a lid. His new shape sorter is very popular, and he's recently revived the robot blocks he got for his birthday because he can stack them one on top of another now (with a little assistance to steady the lower pieces). It's also hard to beat a ball because he loves throwing things, and of course nothing tops a book. Trucks, also a birthday gift, as well as Goodnight Gorilla, Five Silly Monkeys (birthday present), and Blue Hat Green Hat top the list of most favored reading material. But Theo really hasn't met many books he doesn't like.

Anything with a fish or an airplane is still the best thing ever. Buses are fun in real life, and bees are exciting when found in books (but nothing beats finding a book with airplanes, fish, or better yet, both). I have no idea how many books we read a day but it's definitely more than twenty, and probably less than fifty. He likes to flip through some (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, for example) to get to favorite pages that interest him (the food smorgasbord in that particular one), so it really depends on what you count as reading.

As for eating, if it's what we like to call an eating day, anything and everything except meat goes in and down. He can demolish a croissant bigger than his head in one sitting no problem. Or eat two slices of pizza (when I normally eat three). He likes macaroni and cheese a lot, and beans and blueberries are still very popular. Bananas has lost some of their appeal, and been downgraded to a like instead of love, but cheese is still near the top, particularly the round Babybel type.

On a non eating day very little tempts him. It's not unusual to have crackers and fruit or cheese for dinner on those days, and who knows what else. He loves to look in the pantry or the fridge and pick out his own food. He likes to spoon things from a bowl for himself, and pick items out of containers (box, bag, etc.) for himself rather than have someone else do the choosing. Some meals are only accomplished by providing alternate entertainment options, such as a tupperware to open and and close. And he would definitely graze all day without ever sitting down if we let him. He is not a huge fan of his seat, the bib, or the tray, but that's really more of a power play than an actual aversion. He just doesn't like to slow down, even for eating.

He still loves milk. Just showing him some is enough to go from all out crying to satisfied heh heh noises pretty much instantly. He will run to the fridge when he wants milk.

Theo still sleeps between 11 and 12 hours straight at night. We've managed to push his schedule back by half an hour to an hour, so we start the bedtime routine at 7:30 and he goes to sleep at 8 something. On a good day he also gets up at 8, which is awesome. But it has mostly eliminated the 7 a.m. waking up time, instead favoring 7:30 or 7:45. He is gung ho about two naps a day, but partly due to the later wake up time, they have moved much later in the day. His first nap usually starts between 10:30 and 11:00 (also known as three hours after he got up), and the second tends to start between 3:30 and 4:00 most days. He naps between 40 minutes and 1 hour 20 minutes, with one hour being the norm, and 40 minutes on the shorter and rarer end.

And Theo has a few words. He says mama clear as a bell, also will say grandma, and just this week added dada to the mix. He babbles often the rest of the time, and his favorite communication is pointing and grunting. He has enough signs that I don't know how many there are: more and all done are the two most frequent. He waves goodbye (as soon as someone puts on their jacket or shoes or picks up keys), can ask for milk (but usually runs to the fridge), uses airplane, ball, eat, water, banana, bath, toothbrush, and picked up the sign for dog (aka Tetley) in less than five minutes this week. I know I'm forgetting more that he signs, but perhaps I'll remember for next time.

As always, Theo is a happy child. He has definitely moved into the pitching fits phase, and he can go from happy to high pitch in less time than you can wiggle your finger. Mostly he just doesn't have the signs and words to communicate the very specific desires, and almost all tantrums can be ended by having him "show you" what he wants, which means he takes your finger and drags you to wherever he wants to go and points and grunts at things until you catch on. If the answer is still no, there might be another fit involved, but he can still be distracted by other desirable things (ie picking food out of the pantry, etc.). Theo hates sticky things, like say, stickers and band-aids, because they will not come off. He can sometimes handle stamps on his hands under the right circumstances. He adores music, particularly jazz, blues, and classical, but will take just about anything. He loves being thrown in the air or any other rough-housing, and rides on people's laps and legs and anything else that might bounce him up and down as vigorously as possible. Giggles are frequent. Tears less so. And he does love an audience.